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Etymology & demonym

The word 'Theodia' is derived from the Old English word, 'þēod', which means 'nation' or 'people'[2]; and the latinate suffix '-ia', which is a morpheme that connotes 'region' and 'country' in modern English, and which was chosen somewhat arbitrarily. The country was officially known as the "Kingdom of Theodia" from its founding in 2010 until mid-2013, when it became known as the "Republic of Theodia", which was its official name until the name-changes of late 2015 and early 2016, after which it became known as "The Free Cities of Theodia". Its name was again changed in 2017, to "The Technocratic Republic of Theodia".
The demonym, adjective, and language all use the form 'Theodian'. A name change was proposed sometime in 2011 in part to create unique forms for each of these in English, but it was ultimately decided to keep the original name of 'Theodia'. A similar but less dramatic proposal was made sometime in 2015 to change the English adjectival form to 'Theodic', but this proposal only succeeded in renaming the script and the language family of which Theodian is a part.

Foundation

Theodia was originally founded as a kingdom by Swena. The traditional date of foundation for the monarchy is 2010, April 22nd, and the wave of innovation triggered by Theodia's cession of Underwoodia occurred after mid-November in 2011; which means this period of Theodia's history occurred during and between the Late Lethlerism and the Tension eras of the MicroWiki community.
Theodia's foundational raison d'être was to create a society with a strong work-ethic and monoculture. Swena had considered the former to have largely disappeared in America, and the latter to be a solution to the problems of multiculturalism, something se saw as a dysfunctional corruption of the melting pot paradigm. Along with Theodia, Swena posited hirs tripartite approach to creating a society, namely (1) the creation of a national language, (2) the creation of a national religion, and (3) the creation of a national culture. The name Swena eventually chose for the country, Theodia, was seen as representative of both the country's aspirations of nation-statehood, and the country's emerging Germanic culture, as the word 'Theodia' derives from the Old English word 'þēod', meaning 'nation'.
After discovering MicroWikia and considering it to be the premier locale for a new micronation to manage its affairs, Swena began publishing wiki-articles about Theodia on May 23rd. Swena sought, from the start, to present a professional face for the country, as well as to quickly develop all of its official capacities as a state; but hirs primary goal was on the completion of the first component of the tripartite approach: the development of a national language. The language was, at the time of the country's founding, known as Þeodspraask, and was intended to optimize the thought of its speakers. Theodia quickly became known for the language's broad scope, as Swena's continuous editing of the language's article throughout the summer of 2010 kept it at the top of the wiki's activity log.
During this period, Theodia laid claim to Amstria, Neapolita, and Nordia. Neapolita served as the country's capital, being the domicile city of all of Theodia's then-citizens; but the eventual goal was to develop the country in Amstria (the isle of Île Amsterdam).
Swena sought to jumpstart the Theodian economy via pineapple-production, as se saw agriculture as being a clear first step towards the development of a functional economy. A physical national currency was developed, but was never used as a medium of exchange. It was known first as the "Thennar", a name inspired by the currency in the videogameMount&Blade; and its symbol, which has remained effectively unchanged to this day, was 'ꝥ' — the letter Thorn with a stroke, once used to represent Old English 'þæt' in manuscripts[3].
Theodia, at this time, was very open to participating in international relations, and became lightly diplomatically involved in a number of incidents. It condemned the Istoriandeclaration of war against Erusia, Lethler's fraudulency, the Atlantis Civil War, and Istoria's closing of its borders to non-Christians. Theodia also supported the maintenance of the Draco Republic article and, initially, declared diplomatic support for the rebels in the Starlander Civil War — but later withdrew this support after receiving superior intel. It co-founded the Runic Union along with West Germania, and later hosted the Union's first Althing. Towards the end of this period, Theodia, after defending its position on monoculturalism, joined the OAM, and participated in the controversy over New Guinea's membership therein. In total, Theodia exchanged mutual recognition with 20 other micronations.
In October of 2010, feeling that se had a schedule to keep, Swena declared a constitutional convention that se was unprepared for. When the convention came to an end, Swena enacted an incomplete constitution on 2010, October 23rd and, in an effort to stave off oncoming inactivity, declared Theodia's American claims to be independent from the USA on October 22nd of the same year[4] — though this had little de facto effect, and Theodia did nothing to enforce its sovereignty over its American claims. Despite this, the country still ultimately descended into a several months' long bout of inactivity. When Theodia returned in early 2011, Swena declared the occasion to be a rebirth of the country into a golden age, and subsequently changed the flag to a mixture of orange and yellow.
The country's first political innovation was the development of "elemental" parties. Its second was the development of a system designed to tax members of religions which were considered to be significantly different from the majority religion, so as to encourage conformity and stability; this system was inspired by the jizya tax of medieval Islam. These ideas were formalized during the second constitutional convention[5].

Transition

The "transitional" era of Theodian history is considered to have started shortly before Theodia's cession of Underwoodia in 2011 November, and to have ended shortly after the death of Minister Naroba in 2014 February; which means this era of Theodian history occurred during and between the Tension and the Settled eras of the MicroWiki community.
During this period, Theodia drifted away from its nationalistic origins, gradually eschewing tradition in favour of innovation. It is this transition from foundational Theodia to the beginnings of modern Theodia, that this era's name refers to. This trend began a little before Axel Nielson joined the country, and se played an instrumental role in its continuation, in spite of hirs early death. Ultimately, the Transitional Era was both a time of great progress and a time of great sorrow.
Significant efforts were taken to rethink society at a fundamental level, especially where governance was concerned. Work began on a programming language designed specifically for writing legislation (GOV), a new constitution was theorized, and a micronational think tank -- the Society for the Improvement of Humankind (SIH) -- was created[6]. Even Theodia's name was rethought, with there being a proposal to change it to "Dautschland" -- although this ultimately failed to gain traction. It was also during this time that Theodia's now-iconic hex-gear was created and placed on the flag, with its spokes being inspired by Sakio.
The most influential developments of the SIH were the application of the software release cycle to legislation and the replacement of bills with codeces, ideas that have stuck with Theodia to this day, and at the time lead to the creation of Repositocracy as a novel form of legislature. The SIH also developed the concepts of "modlevels" and "optlevels", which were respectively intended to provide fallback modes and to set how much approval/research was needed to change a policy. Work was also done on improving the school system, work which was spearheaded by Axel and received substantial assistance from Swena. Hundreds of lines of GOV code were written for a new constitution that took these ideas into account, but the work was never finished.
This era also saw the adoption of dozenal and ternary as Theodia's mathematical and logical bases, respectively. This prompted Swena to develop a new system of measurement which was dozenal-friendly. Pairdat exposed Theodia to the concept of amoury, which was later adopted nationwide. And the Theodian language grew increasingly a priori, eventually replacing Milic runes with a novel featural alphabet that eventually evolved into the one used today. The basis of what would eventually become Theodia's current military equipment was developed during this time period, as well.
The recently-cessioned micronation of Underwoodia became the Theodian realm of Mentia, which was to be an entirely online territory located on a Minecraft server. Hundreds of hours were spent constructing the floating city of Lemuria, which was intended to become Theodia's capital city. Mentia eventually failed after its founder, Axel, passed away. Around the same time that Mentia went defunct, Theodia claimed Karia.
Theodia joined the GUM and the Glyphic Union during this era, although it later left the former, and the latter stopped existing shortly after foundation. This era also saw the end of the Runic Union, which had been a centerpiece of Theodia's foreign relations since its foundation. Theodia also established relations with several individual nations. Ultimately, the Transitional Era represented the last high point in Theodian foreign relations for a very long time.

Maturation

The "maturational" era of Theodian history is considered to have started shortly after Minister Naroba's death in February 2014, and is still on-going; which means this era of Theodian history has occurred during and between Settled and the Modern eras of the MicroWiki community.

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Demesne

Theodia has, throughout its history, maintained several land-claims on Earth. However, these claims have often been isolated and desolate, which makes it difficult to convince people to settle there voluntarily, as well as quite expensive to develop. Additionally, all of Theodia's land-claims have thus far been de jure and de facto controlled by other polities. Even so, Theodia has since 2016 maintained a claim on Jamesonland in eastern Greenland, as the claim is fertile and well-placed, has never been settled or developed by humans, and is not actively controlled by any polity (with Greenland/Denmark arguably only exercising de jure control); and given these facts, it is perhaps not wholly out-of-the-question that Theodia may be able to enter into some form of protectorate/vassalage agreement under the Greenlandic government.
Regardless of the Greenlandic claim, Theodia has, given the difficulties expressed above, additionally adopted a novel approach to territorial expansion: the enticement of already extant cities to voluntarily leave their current political realms to become free cities in the Theodian fœderation. The Scottish independence referendum has shown that some polities are, at least in principle, willing to peaceably grant political sovereignty to groups on the bases of self-determination and democracy; and Theodia is capable of offering greater rights and a more sensible government than many cities' previous suzerains. As Theodia is not guaranteed to be particularly geographically contiguous under this model, it has opted to make all functions of the state virtual and to have no single capital, to show that no one of its member-cities is above another.
Theodia has also expressed interest in virtual claims, but has not exercised any since Mentia in 2013.

Governance

Devolution

Theodia under its current provisional government functions as a fully unitary system with no subdivisions.

This future devolutional scheme is currently just a rough sketch, but the idea at the moment is to have a fœderal government with unlimited de jure powers (these are de facto limited by the technocracy and the political agency of the Free Cities), under which are a number of "Free Cities" which can form into confœderations at will. Under this system, the fœderal government does most of the heavy lifting with legislation, foreign affairs, etc; the Free Cities handle local issues, but are also allowed to pass their own laws, ignore fœderal laws for a time, and enter and leave the fœderation at will; and the confœderations manage the lands in-between their member cities.

Government

The current provisional government consists of the project manager, Swena, and any number of ministers whose duties and needs are decided among all active members of the government. For some things, the government uses the wider Theodian population as a collective adviser. Due to the tininess of the country and its still being in its early stages of foundation, few formal laws really exist at this point; but over the years, a collection of de facto traditions and such have arisen, and it is these and the current small-town, per se, nature of the country that keeps order.

The post-provisional fœderal government of Theodia is expected to be characterized by a series of juries, approximately one per academic discipline, governing topics of relevance to their fields, with a quality-assurance jury ensuring that laws and recommendations developed by these academic juries are properly designed and legal. Interdisciplinary issues must be cleared by all relevant juries, with the QA jury deciding what is and isn't interdisciplinary. All laws are to be Open Source and available for all Theodian citizens to see on a government-run hub online, where any citizen may fill out bug-reports and make suggestions, or even write their own legislation (which would then need approval by the relevant jury/ies).

Policy

Historically, Theodian policy at the fœderal level has been for the most part non-formalized, with about the only exception being the old constitution; and this remains the case under the current provisional government. The laws which are currently active in Theodia are all de facto in nature and nebulous in definition. These customary "laws" are a mixture of the traditions of the people, simplifications of the de jure laws of the end-game government, and simple motions which have gained prominence among the population. In the event that order is breached, any citizen may weigh in on what to do with the criminal(s), resulting in typically one of three actions: Forgiveness, atonement, or revocation of citizenship. These decisions are enforced by the community as a whole.

Military & police

The current military of Theodia includes every Theodian citizen, with every citizen training and equipping hirmself, with a preference for the standard-issue equipment of the end-game military, where available. The two citizens who are currently considered to have sufficient knowledge of military affairs to serve in officer-positions are Swena and Haviair, the latter of whom has studied at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Eventually, the country will practice true universal conscription. Although not everyone will be expected to participate in combat, they will be required to train for at least 8 times per Theodian year (144 days), with a minimum of 6 days (one Theodian week) between practices (similar to the medieval English requirement to train with the longbow weekly). Armour and weaponry will be provided by the government, with post-pubescent citizens being allowed to keep their equipment. Citizens will be allowed to choose their own combat-classes and preferred terrains. In order to become an officer, one must complete a military degree from an appropriate university, as well as get hired by the government (as an officer in the Theodian military) or a mercenary-company (as an officer in a private military). Officers in the national military will have various ranks, which are to be ascended by a mixture of time spent as an officer and depth of education.
As all citizens would be in the military, all police would be in the military as well, and given this situation, Theodia has opted to make exclusive use of gendarmeries, with all on-duty police-officers being fully caparisoned for war (they would also wear bright vests over their armour, to help make them more visible). Theodia's police-model in neighbourhoods is via community-run neighbourhood-watches, and its model elsewhere is through state-employed police (often through a devolved model). The main focus will be on deterrence and rehabilitation.

Foreign affairs

Theodian foreign policy generally follows the paradigm of Realpolitik. It has, since its founding, exchanged recognition with around 30 other micronations, although its foreign affairs have slowed down considerably since the death of Axel. Regarding international organizations, Theodia has held membership in three that were of note: the Runic Union, the OAM[7], and the GUM[8]; it currently lacks membership in any. The majority of the diplomatic treaties Theodia has ratified have been simple statements of mutual recognition, although there are exceptions, most notable among them being the country's cession of Underwoodia[9].

There are currently no established plans for how Theodia's post-provisional government will handle foreign affairs and treaties differently from now.

Society

Economy

Theodia's economy is expected to be a sort of regulated market-gift economy. It has been on a decline since 2011, when it produced aproximately $42 USD anually, and the annual GDP is now negligible. The government has been generally unconcerned with this, as the current state of the nation's economy in general has never been seen as of particular importance, due to the country's very recent founding and current state of development.
To this date, there have been only two Theodian companies: Arrowe Games, an inactive video-game company that was once developing an MMORPG named Quest for Power[10]; and the Theodian Times, which was a private news-company founded by Pairdat and intended to release stories once a month about current happenings in Theodia.
It is planned to have Theodia's economy entirely online, and to use advanced statistics and incentivizing taxes, among other things, to optimize it. Also, two different currencies are planned, one of which specializes in the store of value function, and the other in the medium of exchange function. The latter will be backed by the former.

Culture

Theodia has two levels of official languages: primary and secondary. As well, each language has an official script. The primary language serves the function of being the legally binding language, and as such there can be only one. Secondary languages are languages which can be used in citizen-government interactions. Each devolution of the government has its own primary and secondary languages, and these do not have to be the same as those used by the national government, with the exception that the primary national language must be at least a secondary language of each devolution. For the national government, the current primary language is Theodian in Theodic, and the current secondary languages are English in Roman and Spanish in Roman; but, as Theodian is yet incomplete, and as English is spoken by all Theodians while Spanish is only spoken by some, English in Roman is currently used as the de facto primary language.
Theodian is an engineered language designed by linguist Miles Huff to be as regular, intuitive, and ergonomic as possible; essentially, to get out-of-the-way of its users. It has been in development since 2010, and is intended to supplant English as the lingua franca of the country.
Theodian English is a dialect of English spoken within Theodia. It is very similar to Southwest-Floridian English, but with a few specific differences, such as its lack of gendered pronouns. Theodians, in their day-to-day lives, currently speak English almost exclusively.

Customs

The culture of Theodia is, in many respects, as engineered as its language; but it for this is no less vibrant than any other. Perhaps one of the most noticeable characteristics of Theodian culture is its conventions, which are vastly different than those of any other society. Instead of SI units, Theodia uses the ergonometric system; Theodian maps point south-up; and mathematical conventions differ significantly from the norm in the West. Besides conventions, the unique sartory of Theodia has also been engineered, and Theodia even has its own unique bricklaying-bond, lamellar pattern, and chainmail weave. These traditions were not born of nationalistic dreams, but of holistic ergonomism, designed with every piece being, to the greatest extents possible, intuitive, ergonomic, and compatible with other components. Theodian culture throws the world's traditions out the window in the interest of finding systems that are, in and of themselves, ideal.
Among other cultural traditions, Theodia has six holidays every year, no division of society into genders (admittedly an experiment), a system of romance based on polyamoury, and a national religion dedicated to pluralism. The most popular sports in the country are battlegaming (especially per the FiodiLARP ruleset) and association football, with the former seen as especially representative of national identity. The country's culinary and musical traditions, however, are yet underdeveloped; and the country also lacks much of a graphical tradition, with such art being thus far limited to simple calligraphy.

Media

Theodia has been mentioned in multiple academic works[11][12], and was included in Micronations, a book by Mohammad Bahareth[13] as well as the Micro series[14].
Theodia has also received the attention of various news sources, ranging from intermicronational[15][16], to macronational[17]. There also appears to be some fan-art and fan-fiction based on Theodia[18], and founder Swena and the Theodian language made an appearance in the documentary Conlanging, the Art of Crafting Tongues[19].
Regarding internal media, Theodia has, since the year of its inception, had a national news-service and YouTube channel, although the former receives publications only on rare occasion, and the latter has only posted one video[20]. In mid-2012, a development blog was started so as to document recent happenings in Theodia[21]; its functions were later overtaken by Theodia's social media accounts.
In early 2012, plans were made by Pairdat to create a private news company in Theodia. One article was completed, but it was never released to the public, and the company ultimately floundered. The original Wordpress site was deleted, its article presumed lost. It was later found by Founder Swena in Google Docs, and was an interview with hirm by Pairdat about the GOV programming language[22].
In 2014, a CyberNation[23] and a NationState[24] loosely based on and completely unaffiliated with Theodia were created. Additional spin-off nations[25][26] in various other online simulations were created in 2017, but only the Politics & War one[27] remained active for any length of time. In the beginning of 2019, both the CyberNation and the Politics & War nation were discontinued.